Agrostis micrantha Steud.

This variable species is the most common Agrostis in the E Himalayas. It is a lush, leafy species, with a green panicle of small, awnless spikelets with subacute glumes, a relatively long floret, and short anthers. Habit is greatly influenced by environmental factors, from compact tufts to much laxer, almost stoloniferous growth in moister situations. Forms with short, lanceolate leaf blades differ in appearance from those with longer, narrower leaf blades, but the variation is continuous.

Perennial, tufted. Culms weak, erect to decumbent and rooting at lower nodes, 40–100 cm tall, 4(–8)-noded. Leaf sheaths smooth, loose; leaf blades linear to lanceolate, flat, thin, 5–14 cm × (2.5–)4–11 mm, both surfaces scaberulous, margins finely scabrid; ligule 2–3(–6) mm, back scabrid, apex truncate, lacerate. Panicle effuse, 10–15(–20) cm, usually narrowly oblong in outline when young, spreading at flowering, usually contracted in fruit; branches several at each node, capillary, up to 10 cm, bare in lower part. Spikelets 1.3–1.8(–2.2) mm, olive green, occasionally violet tinged; glumes narrowly lanceolate-oblong, lower glume usually slightly longer than upper, sometimes equal, keeled, keel scabrid to aculeate, apex subacute; callus glabrous or nearly so; lemma 3/4–9/10 spikelet length, awnless, apex obtuse; palea 0.3–0.6 mm, (1/4–)1/3(–1/2) lemma length. Anthers 0.3–0.5(–0.7) mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

E. Himalaya (Nepal, Sikkim), Assam (Khasia), Burma.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, N Myanmar, Nepal].

3200-3500 m

Roadsides, riversides, forests, swampy places; 1600–3500 m.

Agrostis clavata Trinius subsp. micrantha (Steudel) Y. C. Tong; A. micrandra Keng ex J. L. Yang; A. milioides Mez; A. myriantha J. D. Hooker; A. myriantha var. yangbiensis B. S. Sun & Y. Cai Wang.